


Day 18: "I can't see"

by Fuinixe



Series: Febuwhump 2021 [18]
Category: The Old Guard (Movie 2020)
Genre: Angst, Blindness, Cuddling & Snuggling, Eye Gouging, Future Fic, Good Quynh | Noriko, Happy Ending, Hurt/Comfort, Immortals in Space, Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani Whump, M/M, Minor Quynh/Nile Freeman/Booker | Sebastien le Livre, Multi, Other, POV Nicky | Nicolò di Genova, Platonic Cuddling, Rescue, Torture, Whump
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-19
Updated: 2021-02-19
Packaged: 2021-03-15 00:53:27
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,519
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29550990
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fuinixe/pseuds/Fuinixe
Summary: Captured by sadists, Joe's eyes are removed so many times that he loses his sight. Nicky is immobilized and can't intervene.Eventually, their family rescues them.
Relationships: Booker | Sebastien & Nile Freeman & Joe | Yusuf & Nicky | Nicolo & Quynh, Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani/Nicky | Nicolò di Genova, Nile Freeman & Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani & Nicky | Nicolo di Genova
Series: Febuwhump 2021 [18]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2143242
Kudos: 64
Collections: febuwhump 2021





	Day 18: "I can't see"

**Author's Note:**

> This is a direct sequel to the events of [Imprisonment](https://archiveofourown.org/works/29192604) and an indirect sequel to the events of ["Who are you?"](https://archiveofourown.org/works/29400975)

Their captors had, eventually, and with great reluctance, realized that both torturing Nicky to get Joe to crack and torturing Nicky to get Joe to crack were useless strategies, for the secret to their own immortality was not one they were privy to.

Most of the space pirates had lost interest at that point. But not all.

One, more sadistic than the others, had expressed interest in toying with them for a while longer: victims who could not die, who offered endless opportunity for experimentation. The captain of the ship had shrugged, told him he was in charge of clean-up, and left him to it, locked up with Joe and Nicky in the medbay. 

Nicky had paralytic cuffs on his wrists and ankles, so he could not turn to see what the brute was doing to Joe, but he could tell from the noises.

The man was pushing his creative limits, apparently, by trying to think up as many ways as possible to remove Joe’s eyes. He took great joy in the idea of amassing a collection of eyeballs, not from many people, but from one person; he imagined it would be an impressive collector’s item. Something to show off when he had visitors to his cabin.

He’d taken a bit less than an hour to land on this idea; the first time he’d gouged out Joe’s eyes and thrown them aside (Nicky heard the wet noise of disembodied flesh hitting a metal tray); the second he’d poured acid onto Joe’s face (Nicky heard the sizzling); the third time, he’d swirled a scalpel around in his eye sockets (Nicky tried desperately to forget that noise); and through it all, every time, interlaced with every sound, were Joe’s screams. 

Only then had their torturer landed on the idea of removing and saving the eyeballs. 

Due to the paralytic, Nicky couldn’t even speak, couldn’t give Joe a stream of speech to focus on. Could only stare up at the ceiling or at the backs of his eyelids and pray, a little-used habit these days, that Quynh and Nile and Booker were on their way.

Eventually, the man left, for sleep or food or even an alternate activity. Perhaps he was finally bored with them? 

“Nicky?” Joe rasped, when the doors slid shut. “Are you there, love?”

Nicky wanted to reassure him so badly, but he couldn’t even open his jaw or move his tongue.

“Nicky?” Joe asked again, a bit more frantically. “ _Nicky?!_ ”

“Mm!” Nicky grunted. It wasn’t a word, but it would have to do.

“ _Alhamduallah_ ,” Joe moaned in relief. “I hear you, babe. I hear you.” 

Nicky grunted again, trying to pitch his noise in a comforting way.

“Nicky, my heart, please don’t panic, but. My eyes don’t hurt anymore, I think they’ve regrown. And… Nicky, I can’t see.”

Nicky had a dozen things he wanted to say to that, but he couldn’t say any of them.

“It’s okay.” Nicky recognized the shift in tone in Joe’s voice to the one he used when he was reassuring Nicky. “I know you can’t talk, sweetheart. But we’re still here, we’re still together. I’m sure my sight will come back.”

Nicky made another noise, but this one sounded more scared than he’d intended.

“It’s okay, darling. This isn't forever. The others will find us. We have those tracking devices, remember? I’m here. I’m here.”

Nicky wished so badly that he could hold Joe’s hand.

~~~

The man, it turned out, was not done with them, and the next several days went on much like that. Nicky died of thirst at one point, but luckily Joe was asleep at the time and hadn’t noticed. The man moved on from Joe’s eyeballs and started a project of discovering exactly how the regeneration worked -- how much of Joe he could cut up, and which parts would grow back (regeneration would begin with the largest section of his brain, Nicky knew from unpleasant experience in the 20th century).

Later that day, when the man was gone and Joe was once more whole -- except for his eyesight, which still hadn’t returned -- a booming noise echoed through the walls of the ship. Nicky didn’t dare to hope but maybe -- maybe --

He strained his ears, but couldn’t make out another noise. Joe hadn’t said anything, so he must have fallen asleep.

Roughly ten minutes later, Nicky was thrilled to hear the swishing sounds of the medbay doors opening, and Nile’s shout of “I FOUND THEM!” shouted behind her down the echoing hallway.

“Nicky! Joe!” 

“Nile?” Joe asked, groggily. “Get Nicky, get Nicky out of here!”

“Joe, it’s okay, we’re getting both of you.” Her worried face appeared in Nicky’s line of sight, and she hit the buttons that unlatched the paralytic cuffs.

Nicky pulled himself up to a sitting position with a groan, the first time he’d been able to move a muscle in nearly a week, and swung his legs to the floor to hobble over to Joe. Joe’s eyes were darting around, unseeing. “I’m puzzling out these restraints, _tesoro_ , just hang on.” Nile came up to hold Joe’s hand, and Nicky glanced at her. “He can’t see right now.” 

“Fuck...why? What did they do to you?” Nile asked, voice heavy with concern.

“Gouged out my eyes a few too many times, I guess,” Joe said, with a failed attempt to keep his voice light. Nicky finally got the restraints unfastened and helped Joe into a sitting position, and then the three of them were in a much-needed group hug, clinging desperately to each other. Their warm bodies felt so good against his after the frozen sensory deprivation of the past several weeks. Joe’s head was tucked against Nicky’s neck on one side and Nile’s on the other, their hair pressing into his cheeks. 

“I’m sorry we took so long to get here,” Nile said, her voice wobbling.

“Ssssh,” Joe hushed her. “Not your fault we don’t have instant travel, is it?”

Nicky flinched and whirled around at the sound of a pair of footsteps approaching, but it was just Quynh and Booker, and then their group hug had grown to five, Joe plastered against his back, Nile tucked around the two of them, Quynh and Booker’s arms weaving around and stroking their sides. Nile started crying.

“Can we get out of here?” Joe croaked.

Quynh pulled away. “Of course,” she said, firmly.

Booker gave a start and pointed. “Joe...Nicky...is that --?”

Nicky glanced where he was pointing at a pile of body parts and a large jar full of eyeballs. Nicky swallowed down the bile that rose in his throat. “Yes.” 

“Fuck!” Nile spat.

Joe, of course, wasn’t looking.

“We’re blowing this whole ship to tiny pieces as soon as we’re off it,” Quynh said, an undertone of rage creeping in. “So let’s get off it. Any valuables you need first?”

“Probably,” Nicky said wearily, “But I can’t bear the thought of searching this place right now.”

He took Joe’s left arm, and Nile took his right one.

“Joe, are you alright there?” Booker asked.

“Blind,” Joe said, wearily. 

Booker’s mouth tightened at the corners. “Ah.”

Nile led Nicky and Joe back to the _Andromache_ while Quynh and Booker took the task of searching the pirates’ ship for their things. When they were safely ensconced in their cabin, sitting on their bed, Joe sandwiched between the two of them, Joe finally let himself voice his fears out loud. 

“What if I never see again?” 

“Nah,” Nile answered, rubbing her face against his chest. “I bet we can fix it, even if it is permanent. We’ll get you a visor like Geordi in Star Trek.”

“Oh!” Nicky murmured, and tilted Joe’s head to his. “We haven’t tried --” he kissed Joe thoroughly on the lips, then drew back. Nile made a quiet gagging noise but didn’t move from her position where she was curled up around Joe. 

Nicky drew back to look at Joe, who blinked his eyes open slowly. His eyes didn’t meet Nicky’s, just stared straight ahead. “Sorry, darling. It was worth a shot,” Joe said, kindly.

“Have you _seriously_ cured him with a kiss before, Nicky?” Nile asked incredulously.

“Oh, have we not told you that story yet? It has a rough start, but a wonderful ending,” Joe said with relish.

“Maybe later,” Nicky suggested, softly. He’d had more than enough of Joe’s body parts being removed for him to be in the mood for that particular tale.

“Oh wait, is this the one where you lost your memory?” Nile asked.

“Sí.”

“Yeah, that one was so sappy I made myself forget it.” 

Joe huffed and squeezed her around her ribs. “As if you and Quynh and Booker aren’t building your own repertoire of sappy stories?”

“Excuse you! We will _never_ be as gross as you guys!”

Nicky smiled and nuzzled his face into Joe’s hair. The exhaustion of their ordeal was creeping over him, but he couldn’t bring himself to despair. Huddled in a warm pile like this, safe and together, Nicky could only feel gratitude that they were reunited with their family.


End file.
